This era is divided into two parts; Early
Canaanite Period (Early Bronze Age; 3300 - 2300 BCE). There is cultural continuity within the local Semitic-speaking
culture from the previous Chalcolithic Period, but now also
intermingling with outside influences. Later part is known as the Middle
Canaanite Period and Israelite Period (Middle Bronze Age; 2300-1000
BCE). Successive waves of migration brought other groups onto the scene.
Around 1200 BCE the Hittite empire was conquered by allied tribes from
the north. The Phoenicians of Lebanon, were temporarily displaced, but
returned when the invading tribes showed no inclination to settle. The
Egyptians called the horde that swept across Asia Minor and the
Mediterranean Sea the Sea Peoples. The Philistines (whose traces
disappear before the 5th century BCE) are presently considered to have
been among them, giving the name Philistia to the region in which they
settled, located in present-day Gaza. During this time, the Israelites
emerged in the area.

This period is also known as the Period of
Judges. In c. 1250, exodus of the Hebrew people out of Egypt was led by
Moses. Hebrew conquest of Canaan (Palestine) occured in c. 1200. With the exception of Moses ben
Amram (Levi tribe), Joshua ben Nun (Ephraim
tribe) and Samuel ben Elkana (Levi tribe), none of the judges had
control over all the tribes as such. Rather, each judge exercised
authority over his or her own tribe, occasionally uniting with a few
neighboring tribes in the interest of common defense. Eventually the
people demanded a king and a regular army to defend them from foreign
invaders. Samuel, a staunch advocate of the tribal confederacy, warned
them of the pitfalls of monarchy, but they insisted, and he reluctantly
anointed first Saul, and then David, King of Israel.

The Hebrews
Kingdom..................................c. 1025 – 922

The Israelites dwelt in tribes amongst the
other local inhabitants until the installment of King Saul in 1025 BCE.
Serveral small Kingdoms were established like Kingdom of Judah, Kingdom
of Israel, Philistine city-states, Phoenician states, Kingdom of Ammon,
Kingdom of Edom, Kingdom of Aram-Damascus, Aramean tribes, Arubu tribes,
Nabatu tribes, Assyrian Empire and Kingdom of Moab. Roman established
Province of Iudaea. It was on the coast known as the province of
Philistia (now Gaza strip), which the Greeks called Palaistina and the
Romans Palaestina. According to the Bible, King David (c. 1010 - 961)
and King Solomon (961 - 922) reigned and built the First Temple in
Jerusalem.

Kingdoms of JUDAH
(in south) and SAMARIA (in North)......922 - 715

Divided Monarchies of Judah and Israel, Moab,
Amon, and Philistia (Iron Age IIB) started in 925–722 BC. The Bible says
that with the death of King Solomon around 925 BCE, the Israelites fell
into civil war, and the kingdom split into the northern Kingdom of
Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah. The northern kingdom was far
more wealthy and politically influential, but its monarchy was unstable
with frequent intrigue and dynastic changes. In the relative backwaters
of the southern Kingdom of Judah, the Davidic Dynasty alone ruled Judah
and its vicinities for centuries until the Persian Period, proving
remarkably stable. Several factors contributed to the stability of the
southern monarchy. Its kings made a frequent practice of ruling
alongside a son in a period of coregency. Gradually, the kings
centralized all religious authority to Jerusalem the capital city: to
the Temple located next to the king's palace. Unlike El that was
perceived as a universal deity in the north, YHWH was perceived in the
south as a patron deity of the nation of Israel, thus worship of other
gods equated to treason. Throughout the Davidic Dynasty of the Kingdom
of Judah, religious loyalty and loyalty to the king consolidated.

Vassalage to
Assyria..................................c. 730 - 609

Monarchy of Judah and Edom/Neo-Assyrian Period
(Iron Age IIC) started in 722–586 BCE. In 722 BCE, the northern Kingdom
of Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians, many of its inhabitants
(mainly the elite amongst them) were deported (giving rise to the legend
of "the Lost Tribes") and replaced by settlers from elsewhere in the
Assyrian Empire. Many, however, probably fled to their southern
Israelite sister kingdom of Judah, but others most likely stayed behind.
Philistine cities, because of their strategic location close to Egypt,
were ruled directly by a governor appointed by the Assyrians. In Edom, a
series of kings was founded under Assyrian patronage, to keep the Judean
kingdom distracted to the south. A number of anti-Edomite passages in
the Bible are dated to this period.

Vassalage to
Egypt.......................................609 - 604

Vassalage to
Babylon.....................................604 - 587

This period is known as Neo-Babylonian Period
(Iron Agee III). The Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar conquered
the (southern) Kingdom of Judah in 604–587 BCE, and exiled the middle
and upper classes of the Jews (that is, the citizens of the Kingdom of
Judah, consisting mostly of the members of the tribe of Judah but also
some members of the other tribes) to Babylonia, where they flourished.
Most regard the collapse of the Israelite kingdoms as the beginning of
the Jewish diaspora.

Babylon..................................................587 - 539

Persian..................................................539 - 333

Cyrus II of Persia conquered the Babylonian
Empire by 539 BCE and incorporated Judah and Israel into the Persian
Empire. Cyrus organized the empire into provincial administrations
called satrapies. The administrators of these provinces, called satraps,
had considerable independence from the emperor. The Persians allowed
Jews to return to the regions that the Babylonians had exiled them from,
rebuild the Temple and mint Yehud coins.
The exiled Jews who returned encountered the Jews that had remained,
surrounded by a much larger non-Jewish majority. One group of note (that
exists up until this day) were the Samaritans, who adhered to most
features of the Jewish rite and claimed to be descendants of the
Assyrian Jews; they were not recognized as Jews by the returning exiles
for various reasons (at least some of which seem to be political). The
return of the exiles from Babylon reinforced the Jewish population,
which gradually became more dominant and expanded significantly. The
region was visited c. 450 BCE by Herodotus whose writings give the first
known usage of the name "Syria Palaestina."

Macedon..................................................332 - 321

In the early 330s BCE, Alexander the Great
conquered the region, beginning an important period of Hellenistic
influence in the country.

The Satrapy
(Kingdom from 305) of Antigonus..............321 - 301

Egypt....................................................301 - 198

Later this land was called Palestine by the
Roman emperor Hadrian. After Alexander's death in 323 BCE, his empire
was partitioned, and the armies of Ptolemaic Egypt and the Seleucid
Empire of Syria battled for control of various portions of the eastern
Mediterranean, in the areas of southern Syria, Lebanon and Israel of
today. The Seleucid and Ptolemaic dynasties called that region Coele-Syria
and Phoenicia. Antiochus the Great of Syria gained victory over Scopas
in a decisive battle at Banias in 201-202 BCE. Scopas and his army fled
to Sidon where the Seleucid forces held them under siege until they
surrendered in 199 BCE. By 198 BCE, all of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia lay
under the rule of Antiochus. It was in the time of Alexander that
Aristotle called the homeland of the Jews IOUDAIA, and their city
Hierusaleme, as reported by Aristotle's disciple, Clearchos of Soli, in
his work, On Sleep. The Greek name IOUDAIA became IVDAEA in Latin.
However, the source for this name appears to be the Aramaic word
Yehoudaya יהודאיא meaning The Jews. This is the opinion of the highly
respected French scholar Felix Abel, of the Dominican Ecole Biblique in
Jerusalem. Judea is simply the English version of IVDAEA, also given as
Judaea. Under Seleucid rule after Antiochus' conquest, IOUDAIA was a
division of Coele-Syria.

Seleucid Empire
(Syria)...................................198 - 167

Maccabean
Kingdom.........................................167 – 63

Maccabean revolt occurred in 167 and Jews restore their sovereignty in Judea and
the extent of the Hasmonaean Dynasty as Maccabean Kingdom. According to
the Books of Maccabe which first appear in history in the Septuagint the
Judeans were divided between the advanced Hellenists who supported the
adoption of Greek culture, and those who believed in keeping to the
traditions of the past, which resulted in the Maccabean revolt of the
2nd century BCE. The Kingdom of Judea controlled most of the region of
present-day Israel (without the Negev but with the West Bank, Golan
Heights, and parts of the Gaza Strip) and parts of western Jordan.
Demetrius I Soter suppressed the revolt in 160 BC but Maccabean Kingdom
continued under vassalage of Seleucid Empire until 64 BC.

Rome.......................................................63 – 40

Jewish insurrection against Roman occupation
ultimately results in the collapse of Jewish sovereignty
Following the Roman conquest of Syria in 63 BCE, parts of Israel.

Parthia....................................................40
- 37

Rome.......................................................37 – 66 CE

From
37 BCE to 4 CE it became a client kingdom of the Roman Empire under Herod I, then the Iudaea Prefecture of Syria Province, revolted against Roman occupation
(Zealots and Jewish-Roman Wars).

The Jewish
Revolt..........................................66 - 73

The Great Jewish Revolt began in 66 CE and
resulted in the destruction of Jewish temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE and
the sacking of the entire city by the Roman army led by Titus Flavius
and the estimated death toll of 600,000 to 1,300,000 Jews. In short
Galilee retaken in 67, Judaea and Idumaea retaken in 68, Jerusalem and
the Temple destroyed in 70 and Masada taken in 73.

Roman
Empire...............................................70 - 132

Rabbi Yokhanan ben Zakai, a student of Hillel,
fled during the siege of Jerusalem to negotiate with the Roman General
Vespasian, who he predicted would soon become emperor. Yokhanan obtained
permission to reestablish a Sanhedrin in the coastal city of Iamnia
(modern Yavne; Council of Jamnia). He founded a school of Torah there
that would eventually evolve, through the Mishna in around 200 CE, into
Rabbinic Judaism. In 106 CE The Nabatean territory was incorporated it
into the Roman province of Arabia.

Second Jewish
revolt under Bar Kochba.....................132 - 135

Roman
Empire..............................................135 - 395

Romans join the province of Iudaea (comprising
Samaria, Judea proper, and Idumea) with Galilee to form new province of
Syria Palaestina. In 135 CE, the victory in Bar Kokhba's revolt by
Hadrian resulted in 580,000 Jews killed (according to Cassius Dio) and
destabilization of the region's Jewish population. The Romans renamed
the new territory Syria Palaestina to complete the disassociation with
Judaea. Jerusalem is re-established as the Roman military colony of
Aelia Capitolina; a largely unsuccessful attempt is made to prevent Jews
from living there. Many Jews left the country altogether for the
Diaspora communities, and large numbers of prisoners of war are sold as
slaves throughout the Empire. A number of events with far-reaching
consequences took place, including religious schisms, such as
Christianity branching off of Judaism. The Romans destroyed the Jewish
community of the Mother Church in Jerusalem, which had existed since the
time of Jesus. The line of Jewish bishops in Jerusalem, which started
with Jesus's brother James the Righteous as its first bishop, ceased to
exist, within the Empire. Hans Kung in "Islam: Past Present and Future",
suggests that the Jewish Christians sought refuge in Arabia and he
quotes with approval C. Clemen, T. Andrae and H.H. Schraeder, p. 342
"This produces the paradox of truly historic significance that while
Jewish Christianity was swallowed up in the Christian church, it
preserved itself in Islam, and some of its most powerful impulses extend
down to the present day". Rabbi Yehuda Ha-Nasi finalized the Mishna and
Amoraic Period (220-470 CE) begins. The use of Hebrew as the spoken
language gradually declines in the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba Revolt,
becoming negligible approximately 300 CE but surviving as a literary
language. During the Byzantine Period, the Jewish population in the
north of Israel remained large for several centuries, particularly in
Eastern Galilee. Western Galilee later began to take on a more Christian
character i.e. Syro-Arameans, Greeks and Romans from the 5th century
onward. The coastal plain, central Judea and Southern Samaria had
already become largely Pagan. Southern Judea remained mostly Jewish for
some centuries and Northern Samaria remained Samaritan until the later
stages the first period of Islamic imperial rule. Jewish tribes also
settled as nomadic pastoralists in Arabia, particularly around Yathrib
(later Medina).

Byzantine
Empire..........................................395 – 614

Byzantines revert to the name Palestine first
used by Herodotus c. mid 5th c. BCE and reinstituted by the Emperor
Hadrian, in the form Syria Palaestina circa 135 BCE. The Land of
Palestine became part of the Eastern Roman Empire ("Byzantium") after
the division of the Roman Empire into east and west (a fitful process
that was not finalized until 395 CE). Around 390 CE, the Byzantines
redrew the borders of the Land of Palestine. The various Roman provinces
(Syria Palaestina, Samaria, Galilee and Peraea) were reorganized into
three diocese of Palaestina. According to historian H.H. Ben-Sasson,
under Diocletian (284-305) the region was divided into Palaestina Prima
which was Judea, Samaria, Idumea, Peraea and the coastal plain with
Caesarea as capital, Palaestina Secunda which was Galilee, Decapolis,
Golan with Beth-shean as capital, and Palaestina Tertia which was the
Negev with Petra as capital. In 351 CE, the Jews launched another
revolt, provoking heavy retribution.
In 438 CE, Empress Eudocia allows Jews to return to Jerusalem to live.
The Nabateans roamed the Negev by the Roman Period, and by the Byzantine
Period dominated the swath of sparsely populated deserts, from the Sinai
to the Negev to the northwest coast of Arabia, the outlands that the
Byzantines called the diocese of Palaestina Salutoris (meaning something
like "near Palestine"). Its capital Petra was formally the capital of
the Roman province of Arabia Petraea. The Nabateans also inhabited the
outland of Jordan and southern Syria, improperly called the diocese of
Arabia because its capital Bostra was within the northern extremity of
the Roman province of Arabia Petrae. The origin of the Nabateans remains
obscure, but they were Aramaic speakers, and the term "Nabatean" was the
Arabic name for an Aramean of Syria and Iraq. By the third century
during the Late Roman Period, the Nabateans stopped writing in Aramaic
and began writing in Greek, and by the Byzantine Period they converted
to Christianity. The two diocese of Palaestina proper also became
increasingly Christianized. The Christian monk, Bar-Şawmā, in the 5th
century, records that Jews and heathens formed the majority of the
population. The Jews and Samaritans who ruled the country persecuted
Christians. Some areas, like Gaza, were well-known as pagan holdouts,
and remained attached to the worship of Dagon and other deities as their
ancestors had been for thousands of years. Under Byzantine rule, the
region became a center of Christianity, while retaining significant
Jewish and Samaritan communities (although the Samaritans were greatly
reduced following Julianus ben Sabar's revolt). In 613 CE, the Persian
Sassanian Empire under Khosrau II invaded Palaestina. Jews under
Benjamin of Tiberias assisted the conquering Persians, revolting against
the Byzantine Empire under Heraclius in the hopes of controlling
Jerusalem autonomously.

Persia....................................................614 – 628

In 614 CE, the Persians conquered Jerusalem,
destroying most of the churches and expelling 37,000 Christians. The
Jews of Jerusalem gained autonomy to some degree, but frustrated with
its limitations and anticipating its loss offered to assist the
Byzantines in return for amnesty for the revolt. In 617 CE, the Persians
signed a peace treaty with Byzantines. At that time the Persians
betrayed the agreements with the Jews and expelled the Jewish population
from Jerusalem, forbidding them to live within 3 miles of it. In 625 CE,
the Byzantine army returned to the area, promising amnesty to Jews who
had joined the Persians, and was greeted by Benjamin of Tiberias.

Byzantine
Empire..........................................628 – 638

In 628 CE, the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius
marched into Jerusalem at the head of his army with the support of the
Jewish population who had received amnesty. Nevertheless, upon entry,
the Christian priests in Jerusalem convinced the emperor that God
commanded him to kill Jews and therefore his amnesty was invalid,
whereupon the Byzantines massacred the Jews in Jerusalem and put
thousands of Jewish refugees to flight from Palaestina to Egypt. In 634
CE, the Byzantine Empire lost control of the entire Mideast. The Arab
Islamic Empire under Caliph Umar conquered Jerusalem along with the
lands of Mesopotamia, Syria, Palaestina, and Egypt.

Caliphate (Prophet Muhammad's elected successors).........638 - 661

In 638 CE, the Christians of Jerusalem
surrendered to the conquering armies of the Caliphate (Islamic Empire)
under Caliph (Emperor) Umar, the second of the initial four Rashideen
Caliphs. Umar entered captured Jerusalem on foot. Umar allowed seventy
families from Tiberias in Galilee to move to Jerusalem to live.
Christians, who were expelled from Arabia by Umar also moved to
Palestine. In Arabic, the area approximating the Byzantine Diocese of
Palaestina I in the south (roughly Judea, Philistia, and southern
Jordan) was called Jund Filastin (meaning Division of Palestine, as a
tax administrative area), and the Diocese of Palaestina II in the north
(roughly Samaria, Galilee, Golan, and northern Jordan) Jund al-Urdunn.

In 661 CE, with the assassination of Ali, the
last of the Rashidun Caliphs, Muawiyah I became the uncontested Caliph
and founded the Ummayad Dynasty at Damascus. After the Arabs conquered
the area, waves of Bedouin garrisons began to settle there.

Crusader Period started from 1099 to 1244. The
proximate cause of the Crusades, following 1095, by the Christian
European powers was the desire to reconquer the birth place of
Christianity, which had been lost to the Islamic Arab invasion of the
Eastern Roman Empire in the 7th century. The Christian forces
established the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which lasted from 1099 until 1291,
though Saladin reconquered the city of Jerusalem in 1187. After the fall
of Jerusalem in 1187, the Christian Crusader Kingdom (15 Jul 1099 - 31
Jul 1291) survived throughout the Ayyubid Period until 1291 (fall of
Jerusalem 23 Aug 1244, Acre 16 May 1291, Haifa 30 Jul 1291, Sidon 14 Jul
1291, and Beirut 31 Jul 1291) well into the Mamluk Period.

Ayyubid Dynasty
(Egypt)...................................1187 – 1253

al-Nasir Salah ad-Din Yusuf (Saladin) was Governor in Egypt for the ephemeral Zangid
hegemony established at the final collapse of Fatamid aspirations.
Saladin quickly threw off nominal Mesopotamian rule to become the de
jure as well as de facto ruler of the Nile and established the Ayyubid Sultanate.
He
controlled Jerusalem (02 Oct 1187 - 18 Feb 1229) and some but not all of the region until 1250, when
it was defeated by the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt.

Bahri Mamluk
(Egypt).....................................1253 – 1390

After the Mongols decimated Baghdad and
Damascus in the mid-1200s, the center of Islamic power moved to Cairo,
under the Egyptian slave warriors, the Mamluks. They destroyed all towns
on the flat coastal plains in order to rid the land of the Crusader
presence and make sure it never returned. The main exceptions were Jaffa,
Gaza, Lydda and Ramle. The last major Crusader stronghold, Acre fell in
1291, at the Siege of Acre. As a result of this, most trade with the
west was curtailed. In the late 1200s, Palestine and Syria were the
primary front for battles between the Egyptian Mamluks and the Mongol
Empire. The pivotal battle was the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, when the
Mamluks, after having brokered a cautious neutrality with the Crusaders
(who regarded the Mongols as a greater threat), were able to advance
northwards and achieve a decisive victory over the Mongols at Ain Jalut,
near Galilee. The Mongols were, however, able to engage into some brief
Mongol raids into Palestine in 1260 and 1300, reaching as far as Gaza.

Burji Mamluk (Egypt).....................................1390 - 1516

Due to the many earthquakes, the religious extremism and the black
plague that hit during this era, the population dwindled to around
200,000. It is during this period that the land began to have a
Levantine Muslim majority and even in the traditional Jewish stronghold
of Eastern Galilee, a new Jewish-Muslim culture began to develop. The Mamluk Sultanate ultimately became a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire,
in the wake of campaigns waged by Selim I in the 16th century.

In 1516 the Ottoman Turks occupied Palestine.
It became part of the Ottoman Empire on 23 Aug 1516, of the viyalet
(province) of Damascus-Syria (Jerusalem occupied 28 Dec 1516). The country became part of the Ottoman Empire. Constantinople appointed
local governors. Public works, including the city walls, were rebuilt in
Jerusalem by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1537. An area around Tiberias
was given to Don Joseph HaNasi for a Jewish enclave. Following the
expulsions from Spain, the Jewish population of Palestine rose to around
25% (includes non-Ottoman citizens, excludes Bedouin) and regained its
former stronghold of Eastern Galilee. That ended in 1660 when they were
massacred at Safed and Jerusalem. Palestine became part of the viyalet
of Sa`ida (in Lebanon). During the reign of Dahar al Omar,
Pasha of the Galilee, Jews from Ukraine began to resettle Tiberias.
Napoleon of France briefly waged war against the Ottoman Empire (allied
then with Great Britain). His forces conquered and occupied cities (Jaffa,
Haifa, and Caesarea) in
Palestine from 07 Mar 1799 to Jul 1799. French forces were finally defeated and driven out by 1801. In
1799 Napoleon announced a plan to re-establish a Jewish State in
Palestine which was mostly to curry favour with Haim Farkhi the Jewish
finance minister and adviser to the Pasha of Syria/Palestine. He was
later assassinated and his brothers formed an army with Ottoman
permission to conquer the Galilee. Palestine was annexed by Egypt
(remains nominally Ottoman) from 10 May 1832 to Nov 1840. Many Egyptians
soldiers settled there. Turkish rule lasted until World War
I. Jewish immigration to Palestine, particularly to the "four sacred
cities" (Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberias and Hebron) which already had
significant Jewish communities, increased particularly towards the end
of Ottoman rule; Jews of European origin lived mostly on charity while
many Sephardic Jews found themselves a trade. Many Circassians and
Bosnian Muslims were settled in the north of Palestine by the Ottomans
in the early 19th Century. However, with the advent of early Zionism, just prior to
the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the Jews had become a small
majority in the central Judea region. Many were not Ottoman citizens and
were expelled to Egypt at the time that war was declared. On 02 Nov
1917, Balfour Declaration: Britain views favorably the creation of a
Jewish state in Palestine. Jerusalam was captured on 09 Dec 1917 and by
26 Sep 1918 British occupied the complete Palestine.

Palestine and Transjordan were incorporated
(under different legal and administrative arrangements) into the Mandate
for Palestine, issued by the League of Nations to Great Britain on 29
September 1923. The rise of Zionism, the national movement of the Jewish
people started in Europe in the 19th century seeking to create a Jewish
state in Palestine. By 1920, the Jewish population of Palestine had
reached 8% of the population (Ottoman citizens only, including Bedouin
and Transjordan). In World War I, Turkey sided with Germany. As a
result, it was embroiled in a conflict with Great Britain, leading to
the British capture of Palestine in a series of battles led by General
Allenby. Allenby dismounted from his horse when he entered captured
Jerusalem as a mark of respect for the Holy City. He was greeted by the
Christian, Jewish, and Islamic leaders of the city with great honor. At
the subsequent 1919 Paris Peace Conference and Treaty of Versailles,
Turkey's loss of its Middle East empire was formalized. The British had
in the interim made two agreements. In the Hussein-McMahon
Correspondence there was an undertaking to form an Arab state in
exchange for the Great Arab Revolt and in the Balfour Declaration in
1917 to "favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for
the Jewish people while respecting the rights of existing non-Jewish
communities". The Faisal-Weizmann Agreement of the same epoch declared
the compatibility of Jewish and Arab nationalist aspirations. McMahon's
promises could have been seen by Arab nationalists as a pledge of
immediate Arab independence, an undertaking violated by the region's
subsequent partition into British and French League of Nations mandates
under the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement of May 1916 which became the real
cornerstone of the geopolitics structuring the entire region. The
Balfour Declaration, likewise, was seen by Jewish nationalists as the
cornerstone of a future Jewish homeland on both sides of the Jordan
River. Prior to the conference Emir Faisal, British ally and son of the
king of the Hijaz, had agreed in the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement to
support the immigration of Jews into Palestine and the creation of a
Jewish state in Palestine, while creating a large Arab state based in
Syria. When the conference did not produce that Arab state, and under
pressure from Islamists, Faisal called instead for Palestine to become
part of his new Arab Syrian kingdom. In 1920, the Allied Supreme Council
meeting at San Remo offered a Mandate for Palestine to Great Britain,
but the borders and terms under which the mandate was to be held were
not finalised until September 1922. Article 25 of the mandate specified
that the eastern area (then known as Transjordan or Transjordania) did
not have to be subject to all parts of the Mandate, notably the
provisions regarding a Jewish national home. This was used by the
British as one rationale to establish an Arab state, which it saw as at
least partially fulfilling the undertakings in the Hussein-McMahon
Correspondence. On 11 April 1921 the British passed administration of
the eastern region to the Hashemite Arab dynasty from the Hejaz what
later became part of Saudi Arabia as the Emirate of Transjordan and on
15 May 1923 recognized it as a state, thereby eliminating Jewish
national aspirations on that part of Palestine. Under the Mandate,
Jewish immigration to Palestine increased substantially with a rise in
Jewish nationalism, which encouraged Zionism, a return to the ancient
land of the Jews. Arab leaders, particularly the Grand Mufti of
Jerusalem (Haj Muhammed Amin al-Husseini), strongly opposed Jewish
immigration and employed anti-Semitic demagogery claiming that Jews
threatened the Haram. The result was, in 1920, 1922 and 1929, the 1920
Palestine riots. In 1936, the British Peel Commission advised that the
western part of Palestine be divided between Arabs and Jews. The Arabs
then launched the Great Uprising against British rule in an effort to
end the immigration. The Jews organized militia groups like the Irgun
and Lehi to fight the British and the Haganah and Palmach to fight the
Arabs. By the time order was restored in March 1939, more than 5,000
Arabs, 400 Jews, and 200 Britons had been killed.

Full name with titles:
Field Marshal Edmund Henry
Hynman Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby.
Allenby was sent to Egypt to be made commander-in-chief of the Egyptian
Expeditionary Force (EEF) on 27 June, 1917, replacing Sir Archibald Murray.
Allenby quickly won the respect of his men by making frequent visits to
front line troops. Later he became High Commissioner in Egypt from 07 Oct
1919 to 15 Jun 1925.

The situation as regards currency in the British
territories in the Middle East was quite different from the situation as regards
the currencies of the British West Indies. East Africa and the Middle East were
late additions to the British Empire, and by that time, the British government
had already learned from experience in Canada, India, and Hong Kong, that it is
highly impractical to impose a new currency in the place of already existing
practices. At no time in the history of Britain's involvement in the Middle East
region did the sterling coinage ever form a part of the circulating currency.
The sterling unit of account did however enter the region through Palestine in
1927, in the form of the Palestinian pound. The Palestinian pound was introduced
into Palestine in 1927 to end the confusion which had arisen as a result of the
twin circulation of Turkish and Egyptian money in the territory. The Palestinian
pound was created at par with the pound sterling, but it was not used in
conjunction with the pounds, shillings, and pence coinage. It was used in
conjunction with a decimal system.

The Palestine Currency Board was appointed in 1926 by the
British Secretary of State for the Colonies, and was in charge of the
introduction and control of currency in Palestine under the British Mandate. The
activities of the this board, completely independent of local government, were
confined to the issue of currency banknotes which were backed by an equivalent
amount of Pound Sterling in London. On February 7, 1927, The Palestine Currency
Order created the Palestine pound which was divided into 1000 mils.

In 1927, The Palestine Currency Board, after consulting
with the Mandatory government officials, decided that the coins should be in the denominations of 1, 2,
5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 mils. The 1 and 2 mils were struck in bronze, whilst the
5, 10 and 20 mils were holed, copper-nickel coins, except for during World War
II, when they were also minted in bronze. The 50 and 100 mils coins were struck
in .720 silver and .280 copper with reeded/milled edge. Although a gold coin
equal to £1 was provided for in the Currency Order but were ever minted. All the denominations were trilingual in Arabic, English and
Hebrew [though the Hebrew inscription includes the initials Alef Yud after "Palestina",
for "Eretz Yisrael" (Land of Israel)]. The Arab leadership saw this
compromise as a violation of the mandate terms, but would not stop it. The last coins were issued for circulation in 1946, with
all 1947 dated coins being melted down.

From their initial introduction on the eve on the tenth
anniversary of the Balfour Declaration (November 1, 1927), the coins were minted
as needed to meet public demands. Unlike the United States for example, coins
were not struck with all the possible year dates from 1927 to the termination of
the Mandate in 1948. In all, there were 59 different combinations of dates and
denominations comprising the entire range of regularly issued coinage. The
1947-dated coins, which were not officially released for circulation, are not
part of the total number accepted by collectors as to what constitutes a
complete set of coins. After the termination of the Palestine Mandate and the
creation of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948, the coins issued by the
Palestine Currency Board remained legal tender in Israel until September 15,
1948; in the Gaza Strip region of Egypt until June 9, 1951; and in Jordan until
June 30, 1951. Beyond these dates, the coins were demonetized.

Soon after World War II, the British decided
to leave Palestine. The United Nations attempted to solve the dispute by
putting forward the 1947 UN Partition Plan, which divided the British
Mandate of Palestine between the Arab and Jewish populations. On
November 29, 1947, the Jewish Agency, including the Palestinian Jews,
accepted the plan as it would help lead to the establishment of a new
Zion, while the Arab states rejected it in protest of the establishment
of any independent homeland for Jewish residents of the Middle East
(apparently since many Palestinians would thus lose their own land in
the process), refusing an independent Arab state in an all-or-nothing
campaign. On May 14, 1948, the Jewish population declared independence
as the State of Israel. A war, called the War of Independence by
Israelis and the Nakba by Palestinians, began. The armies of Egypt,
Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria declared war on the newly formed state
of Israel and invaded, but did not succeed in conquering Israel (1948
Arab-Israeli War). During the fighting, additional Arabs fled and in
some locations were expelled. What remained of the territories allotted
to the Arab state in Israel was annexed by Jordan (Judea and Samaria/the
West Bank) or occupied by Egypt (the Gaza Strip) from 1948 to 1967.
During this time, Jordan and Egypt did not normalize living conditions
or establish an independent state for Palestinian Arabs. Following
military threats by Egypt and Syria, including Egyptian president
Nasser's demand of the UN to remove its peace-keeping troops from the
Egyptian-Israeli border, in June 1967 Israeli forces went to action
against Egypt and Syria, and, after failing to persuade it to stay out
of the conflict, Jordan, in what has come to be known as the Six-Day
War. As a result of that war, the Israel Defense Forces conquered Judea
and Samaria (the West Bank), the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and the
Sinai Peninsula bringing them under military rule. Israel also pushed
Arab forces back from East Jerusalem, which Jews had not been permitted
to visit during the prior Jordanian rule. East Jerusalem was allegedly
annexed by Israel as part of its capital, though this action has not
been recognized internationally. The United Nation's Security Council
passed Resolution 242, promoting the "land for peace" formula, which
called for Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967, in
return for the end of all states of belligerency by the aforementioned
Arab League nations. Since that time, Israel continued to build
settlements over Palestinian land, demolishing homes and expelling
families by force. Palestinians started to make their armed groups
similar to the Haganah forces to attack these settlements. They
continued longstanding demands for the destruction of Israel or made a
new demand for self-determination in a separate independent Arab state
in the West Bank and Gaza Strip similar to but smaller than the original
Partition area which Palestinians and the Arab League had rejected for
statehood in 1947. In the course of 1973 Yom Kippur War, military forces
of Egypt have crossed the Suez canal and Syria to regain the Golan
heights. The attacking military forces of Syria were pushed back.
President Sadat Anwar Sadat after cease fire started a peace talks with
the US and Israel. Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt as part
of the 1978 Camp David Peace Accords between Egypt and Israel in hopes
of establishing a genuine peace. After the First attempts, the peace
process in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were made at the Madrid
Conference of 1991. As the process progressed, in 1993 the Israelis
allowed Chairman and President of the Palestine Liberation Organization
Yassir Arafat to return to the region. Following the historic 1993 Oslo
Peace Accords between Palestinians and Israel (the "Oslo Accords"),
which gave the Palestinian Arabs limited self-rule in some parts of the
Disputed Territories through the Palestinian Authority, and other
detailed negotiations, proposals for a Palestinian state gained
momentum. They were soon followed in 1994 by the Israel-Jordan Treaty of
Peace. To date, efforts to resolve the conflict have ended in deadlock,
and the people of the region, Jews and Arabs, are engaged in a bloody
conflict, called variously the "Arab-Israeli conflict" or
"Israeli-Palestinian conflict".From 1987 to 1993, the First Palestinian Intifada against Israel took
place. After few years of on-and-off negotiations, the Palestinian
militant groups have launched an orchestrated attack against Israel.
This was known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada. The events were highlighted by
Palestinian suicide bombing in Israel that killed many civilians, and by
Israeli Security Forces full fledged invasions into civilian areas along
with some targeted killings of Palestinian militant leaders and
organizers. Israel began building a complex security barrier to block
suicide bombers invading into Israel from the West Bank in 2002. Also in
2002, the Road map for peace calling for the resolution of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict was proposed by a "quartet": the United
States, European Union, Russia, and United Nations. U.S. President
George W. Bush in a speech on June 24, 2002 called for an independent
Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace. Bush was the
first U.S. President to explicitly call for such a Palestinian state.

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) is an
autonomous national entity comprising the territories of Gaza (formerly
under Egyptian sovereignty) and West Bank (formerly under Jordan
sovereignty), which were occupied by the Israeli Defense Forces in Jun
1967. As provided by the Israeli-PLO Declaration of Principles signed on
13 Sep 1993 and upon the Agreement signed on 04 May 1994, the PNA was
inaugurated on 05 Jul 1994 as a transitional status including
Palestinian interim self-governing and a phased transfer of powers and
territories (towns and areas of the West Bank). Negotiations on the
permanent status, which could end in a Palestinian State, are under way.

Full name: Abd
ar-Rahman Abd ar-Rauf al-Qudwah al-Husayni. He was in exile in Jordan to
Apr 1971; Lebanon 1971 - Dec 1982 and Tunis Dec 1982 - May 1994. He
also become the President of the Palestinian Authority on 05 Jul 1995.
Became Israeli detainee in Ramallah on 29 Mar - 01 May 2002, 5-6 Jun 2002,
20-29 Sep 2002, Jan 2003 - 29 Oct 2004; from 29 Oct 2004 in Paris,
France for treatment. He died in Paris on 11 Nov 2004.

Ahmed Qureia ("Abu
Ala") (acting
President).29
Oct 2004 - 11 Nov 2004

He served twice as
Prime Minister, first on 07 Oct 2003 to 15 Dec 2005 and then again from
24 Dec 2005 to 29 Mar 2006.

Rauhi Fattouh (interim
President)...........11
Nov 2004 - 15 Jan 2005

Mahmoud Ridha
Abbas (acting
till 11 Nov 2004)....29
Oct 2004 - date

He is also known as Abu
Mazen and became the President on 15 Jan 2005 to 09 Jan 2009. From 09
Jan 2009 onwards, he is known as acting President of West Bank only
while Aziz Duwaik becomes acting President of Gaza Strip. Mahmoud also served
as the Prime Minister from 30 Apr 2003 (designated on 19 Mar 2003)
to 07 Oct 2003.

On June 14, 2007,
President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Ismail Abdel Salam Ahmed Haniyeh's government and appointed
Salam Fayyad to form an emergency government. Haniyeh was Prime Minister
from 29 March 2006 to 14 June 2007. However, Haniyeh and Hamas
maintain that these actions were illegal and that Haniyeh is still the
Prime Minister. Haniyeh still exercises de facto authority in the Gaza
Strip, while Fayyad's authority is limited de facto to the West Bank.
Salam Fayyad offers his resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas, who
accepts it on 13 April 2013. Salam Fayyad was Prime Minister from 15
June 2007 to 06 June 2013. President Mahmoud Abbas asks Rami Hamdallah
to form a government. Hamdallah is sworn in as prime minister on 06 June
2013.